Global Payments Q2 2026: 4% normalised growth, guidance trimmed on Middle East travel disruption

Global Payments reported Q2 2026 GAAP revenue of $3.32bn and adjusted net revenue of $3.16bn, up 33.8% as reported and 4% on a normalised basis after the Worldpay acquisition and Issuer Solutions divestiture. Adjusted EPS rose 12% to $3.46 and adjusted operating margin reached 42.0%, up 70 basis points normalised. The company now reports three continuing segments, Enterprise, Platforms and SMB, with Enterprise revenue of $838.3m. CEO Cameron Bready said he was 'particularly pleased with the progress that we have made on the integration of Worldpay', and management said it had completed the operating model design, with a 30% increase in new merchant locations per sales professional and a 25% sequential rise in Genius bookings in SMB.

Global Payments returned $1.2bn year to date, more than half of its $2bn-plus 2026 plan, and declared a $0.25 dividend. Full-year guidance was trimmed to roughly 4% to 5% normalised adjusted net revenue growth and adjusted EPS of $13.60 to $13.80, on the assumption that Middle East travel disruption persists through year end; the ~150 basis points of margin expansion was maintained.

Global Payments plus Worldpay is now one of the two or three largest acquirers operating in Europe, and this is the first quarter that shows what the combination actually grows at once the accounting noise is stripped out: 4%, against a maintained margin target. That distinguishes it from Fiserv, whose Merchant Solutions segment shrank organically in the same week, and it tells European enterprise merchants running Worldpay contracts that cost synergies rather than revenue acceleration are carrying the story.

A guidance cut driven by travel exposure also underlines how concentrated large-acquirer growth still is in a handful of cross-border verticals.

Whether the Worldpay integration produces contract migrations or churn among European enterprise merchants over the next two quarters, and whether the SMB segment's Genius rollout reaches European markets or stays a US story.

• businesswire.com
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